One girl's journey to West Africa for 365 days.

So…. As most of you know I am currently learning French, so that I can actually participate in life in this great francaphone country. I think it is important to gauge a person’s starting level when attempting to delve into a new language. Before deciding to move to a francaphone country, my command of the French language was limited to that scene with the French chef in the Little Mermaid. The one where is chasing Sebastian, the crab around the kitchen. I think he says a total of six French phrases in that scene and I knew three of them. If you don’t know what I am talking about, you can click the lovely link to the song and scene below, courtesy of You Tube.

Thank you, Disney, for my totally useless introduction into the French language (unless of course I need to talk about how much I love fish, then I am set!) So far I am finding the most difficult part about mastering this language is not the words themselves, but the pronunciation! Oy. Everything is in the nose and throat. I have, however developed a very nice French accent when speaking English. I think I accidentally picked it up when talking to French people who speak English… now if that was an marketable skill, it would be AWESOME. But alas, it just makes me sound like an idiot with a fake french accent. I am using a great method for learning a new language. It is an online site called www.livemocha.com. It is kind of like Rosetta Stone, but online and doesn’t cost $250. It also provides an online community of people who are also trying to learn a language, be it English or whatever, and you can converse with them. Very cool, I highly recommend it. My friend, Boris, who has been a guardian angel providing me with a place to stay and community of people, has a friend who works at UNICEF here in Cotonou. I met her at the gym the other day and she said that there is a position opening that I may be qualified for, but I need to speak French. So I am working on it ASAP. Wish me luck!